


Long drives.

by mypassionfortrash



Category: Tenet (2020)
Genre: F/M, Friends to Lovers, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Lots of Angst, Maybe - Freeform, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:13:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26882716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mypassionfortrash/pseuds/mypassionfortrash
Summary: Every year since you were kids, you and Neil would go on a road trip together. Until, after university, Neil disappeared from your life, seemingly for good.
Relationships: Neil/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	1. When we were young

**Author's Note:**

> DON'T @ ME. NEIL HAS RUINED MY LIFE.
> 
> If you'd like to know about the song that this fic is named after, it's called 'Long Drives' by Molly and the Zombies (or Brian Fallon, but the Fallon version isn't as good).

Huddled up under a Star Wars blanket in the back of that shiny new Ford Escort, you and Neil pored over a battered copy of Lord of the Rings together. You could have done exactly that for all eternity, your contented ten-year-old self thought. Just you and your best friend. You’d always remember the smattering of freckles on his sunburnt nose, and how desperately his fingers battled against the wisps of dirty blonde hair that hampered his view every time he moved his head.

Neil’s mother looked like a movie star with her permed blonde hair bundled up into a ruby red scarf, her feet up on the dashboard and that sleepy-eyed wonder for everything that the little car trundled past. His father drove. A flickering, smouldering Regal dangling between his lips. Every now and again his dark eyes would linger in the rear-view mirror, checking up on the two of you. Just in case either of you got any ideas.

Neil knew better. His dad was a brute.

Your yearly road trip with Neil’s family came and went with silent longing looks and fleeting touches. Not much. Not enough for either of you to realise. But Neil did promise you something: when he could finally drive, neither of you would have to listen to another Springsteen cassette again.

Ever the perfectionist, Neil passed his driving test on his 17th birthday. The first thing he did was steal his father’s battered Escort, 200,000 miles on the clock, and headed straight for your house. He was scruffier then, leaning against the door with his arms folded. He had finally mastered the art of growing sparse sprigs of facial hair, and discovered hair gel to tame his mane. He wasn’t much of a looker in those days, but with every single step you took towards him, year after year, you became painfully aware of the ache in your chest.

He took you to Cornwall that year. You had your first kiss on the way back home when he told you all about his university plans and you told him how much you’d miss him. Late as it was, neither of you had much courage when it came to dealing with feelings. He swore he’d never forget that trip. And he vowed to get a car of his own one day. One that didn’t cough and splutter down the motorway.

Every year, you’d go on that road trip in his father’s Escort. Neil by your side, behind the wheel. But it was like that kiss never happened. He went to university. He was smart, funny, charming. A real hit with the ladies. And, you being his best friend, were always the first to know about Chelsea or Harriet or Lucy or Chloe. One for every year, plus his masters. But you always listened with a well in your stomach and a vice around your heart.

He’d even started listening to Springsteen. He understood it now, apparently.

And then came the year he didn’t show.

It was no big surprise; he hadn’t called or written to you in a while. You figured he had moved on. Maybe he got married, moved away, or maybe he had just forgotten about you. And all those beautiful weeks you spent bundled up in that car together, braving the Great British summertime – together.

You tried reaching out to him once or twice. A letter here, a phone call there. No reply and a dead line.

It hurt, but you’d cope.

It was like he knew.

Just when you had managed to bleach the memory of him from your brain, he showed up outside your building. Miles away from where you grew up. Your home now. One torrential afternoon in the car park. He was like a ghost, with the way that he startled you, calling out your name from the window of a periwinkle Berlinette. You wanted to ignore him; quickening your pace towards the door with a thousand-mile stare. But out the corner of your eye, you saw him. Running over to you in his whisper grey suit and his wingtip shoes. In that moment you knew he had changed.

But as he got closer and you spied his sly smile and unruly hair. This was the same Neil that you spent every summer of your youth with.

Standing face to face for the first time in over a decade, you should’ve felt like strangers. That’s what you told yourself as the urge to wrap your arms around him became almost unbearable.

But his furrowed brow told you that he was thinking exactly the same thing.

“You haven’t changed a bit.” Neil chose his words carefully.

Your heart fluttered like a caged bird. “You wear suits now?”

He stood up a little straighter, suddenly despising the mere thought of why he did. What dragged him away from you in the first place. “Work.”

You nodded, looking down at your shoes; buying time. And then back up. Another terse question. “What do you do?”

Neil’s eyes flitted over the scene in front of him searching for curtain-twitchers and eavesdroppers. His expression lightened when they finally came to rest on you, in all your drenched and pathetic glory. His barely-there upper lip curling up at the corners. “Tea?”

“Tea.”


	2. Get hurt.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neil explains why he's returned after a decade away.

Just like old times. Neil’s clothes and yours were draped side by side on the radiator. No longer was he wearing that expensive suit of his, instead, he had swaddled himself in your fluffy bathrobe before you could find him something to wear. He stood beside you, studying your every move as you made the tea. Too engrossed in everything you did to talk. Each movement giving away a piece of your life that he had missed in his absence.

Until you gave him his tea with an expectant look. “Where have you been, Neil?”

“That’s a long story.” He daintily lifted the cup to his lips and blew on it, before taking a sip. Then he continued. “After university, I got a job that I can’t really tell anyone about.”

You rolled your eyes and barged past him into the living room, throwing yourself down on the couch. “Well that’s typical.”

Neil settled in the armchair adjacent, with a puzzled look on his face. “What?”

“You disappeared for ten years.” You couldn’t hide the hurt in your voice, so you took a scalding hot gulp. “Don’t you think I deserve to know the truth.”

There was a glassy twinkle in his eye as he let out a sigh. “You were – are – my best friend. If I could tell anyone, it would be you, you know? I just…”

“What?” you sneered.

“I just don’t want you to think that it was an easy decision.”

You rolled your eyes again and looked away. “You’re going to need to do better than that.”

“Alright,” Neil began, shifting in his seat. “What do you want to know?”

“Why you’re here. Now. After all this time.”

His features contorted as he wracked his brain, trying to come up with the best possible way of explaining things. His lips would part, ever so slightly, to speak, but then his brain would censor it as soon as the thought popped into his head. You watched him for what felt like forever, until he regained his composure. Sitting up straight, he finally spoke: “Perhaps it’s probably best if I start at the beginning.”

Day had quickly turned to night, and Neil had joined you on the couch, huddled up with you under a thick, cosy blanket with your head resting on his chest.

“So, it’s time travel?” you asked, glancing up at him.

“Not quite. You see, everything around us is traveling forward in time; but in the future, someone discovers how to reverse an object’s entropy through a type of inverse radiation. It’s highly unstable. I’ve never seen anything like it…”

As soothing as hearing his voice again was, you couldn’t resist pretending to fall asleep as he explained what he did and what he knew and why he had disappeared. But it felt like he hadn’t been gone at all.

Your efforts at comedy were met with a swift jab to your side and a chuckle from Neil. “Are you listening? I’m explaining some very serious shit here,” he grinned.

“I stopped listening after the first time you explained what entropy was,” you said. “But you still haven’t told me why you came back now.”

Neil sighed and stroked your hair. “I just wanted to see you again. One last time.”

“One last time?” You turned to face him, searching for a better explanation.

Neil scowled at his slip up. Then he nodded.

“What does that mean? You’re leaving again?”

He nodded again.

You sat up. That revelation squeezed at your brain, forcing words out of your mouth so fast that you could barely make sense of yourself. Somehow, your rant ended with Neil’s hands on your shoulders and tears streaming from your eyes. “But I’ve only just got you back. Please tell me you’ll stick around.”

“My path’s already been decided.”

“Bullshit.”

“I can’t back out of this now. I just can’t.”

“How long?”

“What?”

“How long do I have you for? When are you leaving?”

“Two weeks from now, I’m heading to Kiev. That’s going to start a chain of events that need to happen to stop–“

“To stop what?”

“Annihilation. Everything. Everyone. Wiped out. Instantaneously. I don’t know exactly what I’ll be up against, but I know I’m not coming back from this.”

You cocooned yourself in the blanket around your arms, unable to look at him. The tears didn’t stop, they just fell faster and faster until your cheeks reddened, and every breath caught in your throat.

Neil reached out and brushed them from your cheeks, on the verge of breaking down himself. “But at least I’ve got two weeks with my best friend.”


End file.
